Visuals aside, what did come through loud and clear on the radio bits I heard was McCain's incredibly condescending attitude towards Obama. Not a mindreader, so I don't know what he really thinks/feels, but he sounded like he thought Obama was on par with dog shit.
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged on Friday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.
What I did catch from the radio bits I did hear is that John McCain is awesome. More than that, the American people know he's awesome.
I have a long record and the American people know me very well and that is independent and a maverick of the Senate and I'm happy to say that I've got a partner that's a good maverick along with me now.
I'd say a reasonable rule of the thumb is that when you call yourself a maverick you're, you know, not. But aside from that, I was struck by the "American people know me very well."
Well, due to travel hell I was in a car during the debate. Caught some of it on the radio, though it's hard to make any judgments without seeing the visuals.
I understand McCain has a wee bit of a problem looking Obama in the eye? Pretty weird.
I'm sure if I dug deeply I could find some House Democrats who had some ideas which were a bit wacky, and who weren't particularly bright, but these people are generally kept hidden and not discussed in polite company. On the other hand, crazy idiots have pretty much been the voice of the Republican party for years.
It's interesting that the Republican party is now led by two men, Bush and McCain, who most Congressional Republicans pretty much despise. They despise Bush because he fucked up everything, and they despise McCain because he's always been a total asshole and because of his occasional rejection of tribal conservatism. That's part of the reason his little stunt (and Bush's bailout) yesterday was an EPIC FAIL. They just wouldn't play along.
I'm actually a little sympathetic to Palin. Her problem isn't so much that she speaks in gibberish, the problem is that she doesn't speak in Official Washington Gibberish. John McCain spouts gibberish all the time, as do all politicians, but it's often the kind of gibberish which is part of the Beltway dialect. It's pundit-approved gibberish. Whether or not it makes any sense is irrelevant. Whatever Palin's knowledge of domestic or foreign affairs, her biggest problem is that she's obviously completely unfamiliar with the basic contours of the core political discourse of our country. Gibberish is fine as long as it's the right kind of gibberish.
John McCain, who previously promised to cancel the debate unless there was a deal, is now going to ride to Mississippi on his white unicorn and attend. I'm not sure why, because he's already won it. Just ask him.
No, the fact that a highly regulated bank was, as prescribed by law and regulation, seized in an orderly fashioned and sold off with no cost to taxpayers is in no way a "wake-up call" suggesting that Congress needs to give large amounts of money to the largely unregulated shadow banking system.
People have made this point in comments and elsewhere, and while I have no idea if people are currently draining their bank accounts and putting the money in their mattresses, but generally speaking it was a really bad idea for Bush and McCain to get on the teevee and inform the country that the financial system was about to collapse and that (in McCain's version) we could be in a Depression by Monday. We've all seen It's A Wonderful Life.
I admit pulling my excess cash out of what is my day to day online bill pay account, but that excess cash wasn't exactly much money.
Federal regulators said WaMu has suffered an exodus of $16.7 billion in deposits since Sept. 15, leaving the Seattle thrift "with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations."
Apologies my couple grand or so were part of the problem.
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- biggest U.S. bank by assets, agreed to acquire the deposits of Washington Mutual Inc. for $1.9 billion as the thrift was seized by regulators in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.
...
WaMu had about 2,300 branches and $182 billion of customer deposits at the end of June. Its $310 billion of assets dwarf those of Continental Illinois Corp., previously the largest failed bank, which had $40 billion ($83 billion in 2008 dollars) when it was taken over in 1984.
Of course buying the deposits doesn't mean you're literally buying the cash. You're buying the customers and the right to be custodians of their accounts. Still a pretty good deal!
...but they did eat the loan portfolio, making it not so cheap.
In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Not to beat a dead bailout bill here, but this is how things always work with this Congress. Once you open the door to something, either it doesn't happen or the Bush Dogs and their Republican pals get what they want. When you've advertised in advance that SOMETHING MUST HAPPEN NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW, the latter scenario usually comes to pass. What happens here now I can't predict, but the path until this point was completely obvious, except for raging narcissistic drama queen John McCain's little ploy to put himself where he knows he belongs, at the center of the universe.
Not too surprisingly, there is no popular groundswell of support for giving $700 billion to rich people. This makes the politics extraordinarily weird, with McCain apparently trying simultaneously own and oppose the bailout.
Frank says only issue left to deal on is bankruptcy cram downs. Will Dems just sell out on that one, the only real goodie in there?
COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.
He had a banking bill, but he decided to keep it secret along with his plan to get bin Laden.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain has not introduced any banking or housing bills in the 110th Congress, while Democratic rival Barack Obama has proposed five.
While I've long thought that there was no way that housing prices could continue to appreciate based on the very simple fact that not enough people in this country make enough money to afford those prices, I certainly didn't have perfect foresight about everything. I didn't know that lending standards had gotten so bad. I didn't know that financial institutions were making such leveraged bets on big shitpile.
The other thing I didn't know was the magnitude of HELOC abuse, by both borrowers and lenders. Truly amazing.
So McCain's gambling that the press will let him pretend that he rode into Washington on his white unicorn, told the sunnis and shiites Democrats and Republicans to "cut the crap out" and SAVED THE WORLD.
This level of stupidity reminds me of the lowest moments of the Clinton campaign, requiring both that voters are extraordinarily stupid and that the press plays along giving some credibility to the stupidity.
The banking system needs another $500 billion to survive beyond the $700 billion rescue plan being contemplated by Congress, said Pimco founder Bill Gross.
I like Al, but there's no reason civil disobedience is something for young people. I chafe when armchair revolutionaries suggest that others rise up and face the consequences.
McCain advisors say they will do all the debates but the schedule is up in the air. They also deny that there is a political calculation in this and say without action the country could slide into a Depression by Monday and added "we'll see 12 percent unemployment" if action is not completed. GOP sources say they believe the current deal is dead on the Hill and reject suggestions that without McCain's vote Democrats would not support a package.
At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.
McCain is suspending campaign (whatever that means) and going to Washington so he can have pictures taken of him looking like he's doing something. Asks that Obama do the same, and wants Friday's debate to be postponed, because he can't possibly do 2 things at once.
But late Tuesday AIG said it signed a definitive agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for a two-year, $85 billion revolving credit facility. As part of the deal, AIG will issue a series of Convertible Participating Serial Preferred Stock to a trust that will hold the new securities for the benefit of the Treasury. The Preferred Stock will get almost 80% of any dividends paid on AIG's common stock and will give the government almost 80% of the voting power. The securities will then be converted to common stock at a special shareholder meeting, AIG said. The agreement leaves "AIG essentially nationalized," Bijan Moazami, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday. "Shareholder efforts to prevent the government from taking an equity stake in AIG will prove fruitless."
I've been glad to find out that contrary to the common media narrative, Americans aren't necessarily excited about putting someone like Sarah Palin in office.
Forty-nine percent say that Palin is unqualified to be president if the need arises, compared with 40 percent who say she's qualified.
By contrast, 64 percent believe Biden is qualified to be president, versus just 21 percent who disagree.
Will be interrupting your prime time TV viewing this evening at 9:00. I do hope that the Democrats have finally internalized the idea that he's been 30% and under the polls for 3 years now.
And at a minimum, before shelling out for a new bailout it’d be nice to see something about how the previous bailouts are going.
One reason (there are dozens!) not to simply give Hank Paulson's golfing buddies $700 billion with no strings attached is that it precludes any possibility of measuring whether this action is a "success." There should at least be some yardstick. It'd be nice to establish so that it can be used for the inevitable General Motors bailout, too.
I get emails like this sometimes, from insiders who know what they're talking about, and over time I've learned that while they may be insiders all that means is they have access to more gossip. That gossip often doesn't turn out to be true.
In any case, a straw man is being erected. There is no crisis which requires $700 billion to Hank Paulson's friends THIS WEEK. That's the argument. There may be serious problems in the financial sector which require government attention. There isn't something which requires an insane act of Congress NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.
More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.
WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Americans oppose government rescues of ailing financial companies by a decisive margin, and blame Wall Street and President George W. Bush for the credit crisis.
By a margin of 55 percent to 31 percent, Americans say it's not the government's responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayer dollars, even if their collapse could damage the economy, according to the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll.
TRENTON, N.J. - Residents in one New Jersey town are disturbed after receiving fliers over the weekend that question Barack Obama's candidacy on racial grounds.
Roxbury resident Elizabeth Corsetto says a flier was left in her driveway asking, "Do You Want A Black President?" and showing a doctored photo of Obama with a long beard and turban.
Roxbury Police Chief Mark Noll says the fliers were left on various streets in the northwestern New Jersey township by a white supremacist group called the League of American Patriots.
Chris lays it out pretty well. To be clear, it's quite possible that some sort of government action at some point might be desirable. But the way this was dropped on the Democrats is how everything has always been dropped on the Democrats by the administration. GOP Daddies In Nice Suits quietly explain that unless they do exactly what they demand, the world will blow up and it will be all the Democrats' fault. Usually the Dems fall for it, and initially it looked like they were going to fall for it again. Will they? Stay tuned.
Josh asks what he's missing. He's missing the fact that after we recapitalize the banking system with taxpayer money buy purchasing big shitpile from them at HIGH HIGH prices, the party continues!
Don't forget to add your distressed assets to the Big Shitpile, so that Crazy Hank can buy them up at HIGH HIGH prices. No punitive measures allowed, so no need to worry!
Not familiar with any of them specifically, but generally a lot of very bad urban freeways were built and when they're due for major repair it'll be good to let them die. They destroyed and divided neighborhoods.
WASHINGTON, May 25 — The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.
It is the first indication that growing political pressure is forcing the White House to turn its attention to what happens after the current troop increase runs its course.
The concepts call for a reduction in forces that could lower troop levels by the midst of the 2008 presidential election to roughly 100,000, from about 146,000, the latest available figure, which the military reported on May 1. They would also greatly scale back the mission that President Bush set for the American military when he ordered it in January to win back control of Baghdad and Anbar Province.
I think Matt sorta misses the point. All of those people were starting from the presumption that the Dems were heading off to write a bad bill for which they would be rewarded by being campaigned against. In other words, it would be bad politics and bad policy! Now it's possible that they'll ultimately come up with a better bill, one which would be better policy and better politics, but that's only if they understand that GOP Daddies are generally bad people.
Metro needs more than $11 billion over 10 years to maintain, expand and improve train, bus and paratransit service, General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said today. More than $7 billion of that is needed just to keep the region's largest transit agency running in a safe and reliable manner.
Metro's needs include replacing one-third of the rail fleet, 300 rail cars that are more than 30 years old and nearing the end of their life cycle; replacement of about 100 buses every year; repairs to leaky tunnels and crumbling station platforms; and repairing old bus garages, one of which is more than 100 years old.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll suggests that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks — one factor that may have contributed to an apparent increase in Barack Obama’s edge over John McCain in the race for the White House.
In the new survey, released Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying Democrats are more responsible. One in five of those polled blame both parties equally, and 8 percent say neither party is to blame.
Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.
But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.
Of course they will. And, hey, what do you know, the economy's still here! Hasn't imploded yet! While I'm increasingly pleased at Dodd's new plan, a major boo to him and Schumer for playing right into the "WE MUST DO SOMETHING NOW NOW NOW" crap from the administration.
I don't know what exactly needs to be done or how urgent some sort of intervention is, but I do know that if someone asks you for $700 billion you'd better get something for it.
Does the McCain campaign do anything aside from throwing hissy fits? I mean, other than lying, of course. Elect John McCain and embrace America's future as a Toddlerocracy.
Given how gung ho Dodd was about Henry Paulson's cunning plan to give $700 billion to his pals, I was about to declare Doddmania dead forever. This sounds a bit better, but I fear that once they all bought into the "something must be done NOWNOWNOW" idea they lost any chance of anything noncrazy happening.
As has been reported, the classes of assets and owners who will be eligible to sell their shit to Hank Paulson at inflated prices is expanding by the second. Add your assets to the shitpile!
Politely suggest that giving Hank Paulson 700 billion dollars is insane. Use Teh Google to find their numbers, or call the House switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
The most ridiculous thing is that bailout politics will largely depend on daily fluctuations of the DJIA, which only has a tangential and indirect relationship to the seriousness of a financial crisis.
...and, it must be said, a tangential and indirect relationship to the financial fortunes of the vast majority of the country.
The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a day after first submitting it, as lawmakers and lobbyists push their own ideas. Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a congressional aide.
The change suggests the inclusion of instruments such as car and student loans, credit-card debt and any other troubled asset. That may force an eventual increase in the size of the package as Democrats and Republicans in Congress negotiate the final legislation with the Bush administration, analysts said.
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that Congress should not write a "blank check" to Wall Street in a bill to allow the U.S. to buy up distressed assets.
In a statement issued Sunday evening, Pelosi said a Treasury proposal received by Congress "does not include the necessary safeguards" and that congressional Democrats "will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome."
Obama's people are making the right noises, but there's a difference between being on record as being kinda-maybe against and actually, you know, opposing. From Late Edition:
GOOLSBEE: There is more information on the back of a box of Froot Loops than on what they've presented.
Basically, you'd have to be insane to give Paulson a $700 billion blank check with no strings attached. The fact that this is what Paulson has asked Congress to do is enough reason to tell him to fuck off and come up with something better, with him utterly out of the loop.
The Dems sucked as a minority party, and they suck harder as the majority.
I think everyone who reads this blog who's American, first thing on Monday morning, needs to call their Representatives and Senators and say: No. Blank. Checks. For. Crooks.
Be as polite as you can be and don't use bad words. Personally, this injunction may limit the duration of my calls to under a thirtieth of a second, or shorter.
TO CLARIFY. Look, right now the choice is, Bush's Plan, or Something Else. Kill Bush's Plan now, worry about Something Else later.
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